Early Warning Report:

Some EPA Employees Found to 

Be on Paid Administrative Leave 

for Years

Report No. 15-N-0025 November 19, 2014

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL

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Report Contributors: Robert Adachi

Leah Nikaidoh

Darren Schorer

Lela Wong

Abbreviations

EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

FY Fiscal Year

GAO U.S. Government Accountability Office

OIG Office of Inspector General

OPM Office of Personnel Management

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 15-N-0025

November 19, 2014

Why We Did This Review

In reaction to an October 17, 

2014, U.S. Government

Accountability Office (GAO) 

report, FEDERAL PAID 

ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE, 

Additional Guidance Needed 

to Improve OPM Data, a

member of the Senate 

Committee on the Judiciary 

and a member of the House

Committee on Oversight and 

Government Reform sent a 

letter on October 21, 2014, to 

the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) 

Administrator requesting 

information concerning 

administrative leave taken by 

EPA employees. As a result 

of that request, this early 

warning report provides 

information identified during 

the EPA Office of Inspector 

General’s time and 

attendance audit (still in 

process) in connection with 

administrative leave.

This report addresses the 

following EPA goal or 

cross-agency strategy:

 Embracing EPA as a highperforming organization.

Send all inquiries to our public 

affairs office at (202) 566-2391 

or visit www.epa.gov/oig.

The full report is at:

www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2014/ 

20141119-15-N-0025.pdf

Early Warning Report: 

Some EPA Employees Found to Be on 

Paid Administrative Leave for Years

 What We Found

We provided to the EPA Administrator data on eight employees who had 

recorded significant amounts of administrative leave. The amount of 

administrative leave recorded by these eight employees totaled 

20,926 hours and cost the government an estimated $1,096,868. Each of 

these employees was on extended administrative leave for 4 or more 

months. For four of the eight employees, the administrative leave 

covered more than a year.

According to GAO, there is no general statutory authority for the use of 

paid administrative leave, which is an excused absence without loss of 

pay or charge to other (annual or sick) leave. However the U.S. Office of 

Personnel Management has provided direction on the permissible use of 

administrative leave.

This early warning report is for informational purposes only; therefore, 

there are no recommendations for the agency to address. Our audit work 

on EPA time and attendance is in process and could result in additional 

matters reported to the agency regarding the EPA’s use of administrative 

leave.

 Briefing With the Administrator and Agency Response

The EPA Inspector General met with the EPA Administrator on 

October 30, 2014, to brief her on our currently ongoing work related to 

this matter. The Administrator subsequently requested the background 

information on the employees for follow-up by the EPA’s Office of 

Administration and Resources Management. We provided the requested 

information on November 3 and November 5, 2014.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Inspector General

At a Glance
November 19, 2014

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Early Warning Report: Some EPA Employees Found to Be on 

Paid Administrative Leave for Years

Report No. 15-N-0025

FROM: Arthur A. Elkins Jr. 

TO: Gina McCarthy, Administrator

On October 21, 2014, you received a letter from a member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and 

a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform requesting information 

concerning administrative leave taken by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees. This 

request was in response to the U.S. Government Accountability Office report, FEDERAL PAID 

ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE, Additional Guidance Needed to Improve OPM Data, issued on October 17, 

2014. As a result of that congressional request, this early warning report is providing you with 

information obtained during our currently ongoing time and attendance audit in connection with 

administrative leave.

This report is for informational purposes only. No recommendations have been made, and a response to 

this report is not required.

This report will be available at http://www.epa.gov/oig.

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460

THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
15-N-0025 1

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to provide early information obtained during our 

time and attendance audit of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 

connection with administrative leave—where an excused absence is taken without 

loss of pay or charge to other (annual or sick) leave. This report is for 

informational purposes only and no recommendations are being made; any

recommendations in connection with administrative leave will be made in a 

subsequent report on the EPA’s time and attendance audit.

Background

On October 21, 2014, the EPA Administrator received a letter from a member of 

the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and a member of the House Committee on 

Oversight and Government Reform requesting information concerning 

administrative leave taken by EPA employees. This request was in response to a 

U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, FEDERAL PAID 

ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE, Additional Guidance Needed to Improve OPM Data, 

issued on October 17, 2014. 

The GAO report provided summary data for paid administrative leave for 

24 federal agencies, including the EPA. The GAO selected five agencies for an 

in-depth review of administrative leave policies and collected information on the 

reasons why these agencies had large amounts of paid administrative leave; the 

EPA was not one of those five agencies selected for in-depth review. 

The GAO, however, identified that the estimated salary cost for EPA employees 

on administrative leave for fiscal years (FYs) 2011 through 2013 was 

$17,550,100. During that period, GAO identified 69 EPA employees who used a 

month or more of administrative leave. There were 50 employees who had used

between 1 and 3 months of administrative leave and two employees who had used

administrative leave in excess of 1 year. The total amount of administrative leave 

taken by the 69 EPA employees for FYs 2011 through 2013 totaled 4,711 days. 

According to GAO, there is no general statutory authority for the use of paid 

administrative leave, which is an excused absence without loss of pay or charge to 

leave. However, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has provided direction 

on the permissible use of administrative leave.

Scope and Methodology

As part of the OIG’s audit of EPA time and attendance that is still in process, we 

reviewed data for EPA employees who were on extended periods of 

administrative leave in FY 2014. We compiled leave and salary information for 

these employees. To determine the hours and amounts associated with EPA 
15-N-0025 2

employees’ administrative leave taken without a loss of pay or charge to leave 

accounts, we performed the following steps:

 Based upon the EPA time and attendance audit sample of four pay periods

in FY 2014 (two pay periods in November 2013 and two pay periods in 

May 2014), we reviewed data for employees who had recorded

administrative leave. 

 For these employees, we determined the duration of administrative leave 

between FYs 2007 and 2014.

 We estimated the cost of administrative leave based upon the estimated 

annual pay listed in the employee’s Standard Form 50, Notification of 

Personnel Action.

This report was not prepared in accordance with generally accepted government 

auditing standards. In particular, the report does not contain any findings or 

conclusions in connection with internal controls or EPA’s compliance with 

administrative leave criteria. This report is for informational purposes only. The 

departure from generally accepted government auditing standards had no impact 

on the information provided in this report. 

Results of Review

During our audit of EPA’s time and attendance, employees in our sample had 

recorded administrative leave during the months of November 2013 and/or

May 2014. We analyzed data for eight employees who had recorded significant 

amounts of administrative leave. The total amount of administrative leave

recorded for these eight employees from January 3, 2010, to September 20, 2014, 

totaled 20,926 hours and cost the government an estimated $1,096,868 (see 

Table 1 below). Each of these employees was on extended administrative leave 

for 4 or more months. For four of the eight employees, the administrative leave 

covered more than a year. 

The EPA has policies and procedures for administering leave benefits through its

EPA Leave Manual 3165. According to the leave manual, first-line supervisors 

are authorized to approve the various types of leave for the employees whom they 

supervise, unless they are notified in writing that the authority is retained at a 

higher organizational level. Agency officials authorized to approve leave are 

required to administer leave in compliance with the EPA leave manual. 

Chapter 9 of the leave manual states that administrative leave is synonymous with 

an excused absence. An excused absence is an absence from duty without loss of 

pay and without charge to the employee’s leave account (i.e., annual and sick 

leave). The distinction is that an employee, while on excused absence (as opposed 
15-N-0025 3

to formal leave, such as annual leave or sick leave), is not acting within the 

employer–employee relationship.

The leave manual identifies a variety of circumstances where administrative leave 

can be authorized, including absence for voting, participation in funeral 

ceremonies, blood donations, sitting for examinations, and hazardous weather 

conditions. The leave manual also provides that one authorized use of 

administrative leave is when an employee’s removal or indefinite suspension is 

proposed, and the employee’s continued presence at the work site during the 

notice period would constitute a threat to public property or the health and safety 

of coworkers or the public. However, the leave manual does not provide any 

guidance as to an acceptable amount of administrative leave or list other 

personnel matters that would qualify for administrative leave.

We examined the agency’s payroll records1to determine the extent of the 

administrative leave recorded for the eight employees who were on extended 

administrative leave for 4 or more months. The total amount of leave recorded

and the estimated costs associated with the leave are shown in Table 1:

Table 1: Administrative leave information for sampled EPA employees2

Employee 

No.

Administrative 

leave hours

Period when leave 

was taken

3

Total estimated 

cost

1 1,820 07/28/13 – 09/20/14 $69,593

2 5,883 01/03/10 – 09/20/14 300,671

3 767 01/12/14 – 09/20/14 35,226

4 6,300 05/09/10 – 09/20/14 351,300

5 3,916 01/16/11 – 01/11/14 239,600

6 1,050 03/09/14 – 09/20/14 61,145

7 300 09/08/13 – 01/11/14 15,385

8 890 04/06/14 – 09/20/14 23,948

Total 20,926 $1,096,868

Sources: OIG analysis and EPA’s Compass Financial Data Warehouse.

During the process of collecting data, we became aware of two payroll codes used 

by one employee that raised additional concerns because of the large amount of 

time charged closely preceding this employee’s extended administrative leave. 

The suspect time charges included hours charged for dispute resolution 

(payroll code EMRDR) and general labor management (payroll code EMRGL).

The charges included 1,231 hours at a cost of $57,636. According to the 

EPA Office of Administration and Resources Management, these labor categories 

are used to track official time for union representation as identified in Title 5 

U.S. Code §7131. 

 

1 EPA employees did not always have a timesheet prepared and approved in EPA’s payroll system. Therefore, the 

amounts of administrative leave recorded for employees with missing timesheets could be higher than reported in 

the table.

2 We only included the administrative leave hours identified in EPA’s payroll system if the employee charged such 

leave regularly for an extended period of time (more than four consecutive pay periods). 

3 Recorded administrative leave may not have been taken for the entire period cited.
15-N-0025 4

Briefing With the Administrator and Agency Response 

We briefed the EPA Administrator on October 30, 2014, on the leave and salary 

information we compiled. The Administrator subsequently requested the 

background information on the employees for follow-up by the EPA’s Office of 

Administration and Resources Management. We provided the requested 

information on November 3 and November 5, 2014.
15-N-0025 5

Appendix A

Distribution

Office of the Administrator

Deputy Administrator

Assistant Administrator for Administration and Resources Management

Agency Follow-Up Official (the CFO)

Agency Follow-Up Coordinator

General Counsel

Associate Administrator for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations

Associate Administrator for Public Affairs

Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Administration and Resources Management

Director, Office of Administration, Office of Administration and Resources Management

Director, Office of Policy and Resource Management, Office of Administration and 

Resources Management

Deputy Director, Office of Policy and Resource Management, Office of Administration and 

Resources Management

Audit Follow-Up Coordinator, Office of Administration and Resources Management